Hamilton is a rap musical production written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and originally performed Off-Broadway in NY in 2015. Last month, a Texas church decided to do a satirical performance of the play and altered it to include anti-LGBTQ scenes. The church did not have permission or seek license to perform the show which took Miranda seven years to compose.
Some clips of the play were posted on Twitter:
You might be wondering: since when did we need a license to perform satirical renditions of other peoples’ work? Well, in some cases it may be acceptable and in some, it may not be. It would depend on the context and how much it was actually altered. In this case, the church acknowledged wrongdoing and in so doing, will be paying damages that will in turn be donated to pro-LGBTQ activist groups.
That church is the Door McAllen Church in McAllen, TX.
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After making headlines for streaming the production online which drew the ire of the pro-LGBTQ camp, the Door McAllen’s pastor, Roman Gutierrez posted on Instagram a statement stating that they respect the copyrights of Miranda and understand that the copyrights are protected by federal law.
“We acknowledge there are lawful avenues to obtain a license to stage properties which we did not pursue,” Gutierrez wrote in the statement. “And it is never permissible to alter an artistic work such as Hamilton without legal permission.”
“Lastly,” the statement read, “we will pay damages for our actions.”
According to NBC, Hamilton is donating the money to the South Texas Equality Project which it says is “a coalition of organizations that support and advocate for the LGBTQ community in the Rio Grande Valley.” Below is the statement from Door McAllen church acknowledging the mistake. Sadly, this has cost the members of the church who have now given to the church to support a pro-homosexual organization.
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